Top Science News

July 6, 2026

Top Headlines

Millions May Be Getting the Wrong Cholesterol Test

July 6, 2026 A new study suggests that apoB, a blood test that measures harmful cholesterol particles, is better than standard LDL cholesterol testing for deciding who needs more intensive treatment. Researchers found it could prevent more heart attacks and ...

Streetlights Are Trapping Thousands of Pill Bugs in Giant “Death Spirals”

July 6, 2026 Researchers discovered that artificial streetlights can trap thousands of woodlice in mesmerizing circular "death spirals" never before seen in the wild. The surprising finding suggests that light ...

Astronomers Witness the Birth of a Magnetar for the First Time

July 6, 2026 A strange "chirping" signal from a distant supernova has revealed the birth of a magnetar, confirming that these incredibly magnetic neutron stars can power the universe's brightest stellar explosions. The discovery also marks the first time ...

Scientists Found 45 Chemicals in Pregnant Women and Many Were Linked to Birth Risks

July 6, 2026 A large study found that pregnant women are exposed to dozens of common chemicals, many of which were associated with earlier births and lower birth weights. Researchers also discovered that some ...

Scientists Find the “Achilles’ Heel” of Deadly Gut Bacteria

July 5, 2026 Researchers discovered an “Achilles’ heel” shared by E. coli, Shigella, and other diarrhea-causing bacteria: enzymes they use to breach the gut’s protective mucus layer. By targeting this common vulnerability, scientists may be able to ...

Scientists May Have Finally Found How Alzheimer's Kills Brain Cells

July 5, 2026 Researchers have identified a previously overlooked mechanism of brain cell death that appears to play a major role in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. The finding could lead to new treatments aimed at slowing neuron loss by ...

5,000-year-old Wolves Found on Remote Island Rewrite What We Know About Domestication

July 5, 2026 Scientists discovered ancient wolves on a tiny Baltic island where they could only have been brought by humans, suggesting an unexpectedly close relationship between people and wolves thousands of ...

Record-breaking Ocean Drilling Reveals Why Japan's 2011 Tsunami Was so Deadly

July 5, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a hidden weakness beneath the Pacific Ocean that helps explain why Japan’s catastrophic 2011 earthquake and tsunami became so devastating. By drilling deeper into the ...

Ancient Bees Turned Tooth Sockets Into Tiny Nurseries 20,000 Years Ago

July 5, 2026 A stunning fossil discovery shows that ancient bees used the empty tooth sockets of mammal bones as tiny nests after owls scattered the bones across a cave floor 20,000 years ago. It's the first known evidence of bees nesting inside animal bones, ...

Quantum Mechanics Once Baffled Scientists. Now It's Changing the World

July 5, 2026 Quantum mechanics has journeyed from a strange and controversial idea to the foundation of some of humanity’s most advanced technologies. Now researchers are pushing its boundaries even further, with potential breakthroughs in energy, medicine, ...

Scientists Discover the Deep Sleep Circuit That Builds Muscle, Burns Fat, and Boosts the Brain

July 5, 2026 Researchers have identified the brain circuitry that links deep sleep with the release of growth hormone, revealing how the two regulate each other. The newly discovered feedback loop helps explain ...

Light Switch Wakes Sleeping Cancer Cells and Makes Them Vulnerable Again

July 5, 2026 Some cancer cells evade treatment by entering a dormant state triggered by stress hormones. ETH Zurich scientists have created a light-controlled molecular switch that selectively destroys the receptors responsible for this survival mode. In ...

Latest Headlines

updated 5:05am EDT

NASA's Hubble Spots a Stellar Sparkler for the Fourth of July

July 5, 2026 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular red, white, and blue view of one of the Milky Way's oldest star clusters to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary. Hidden within the ...

NASA's Hubble Captures a Crimson Stellar Nursery Sparkling With Blue and White Stars

July 5, 2026 Hubble has captured a spectacular view of LH 95, where about 2,500 young stars are still on their journey to becoming full-fledged stars. Scientists ...

NASA's Hubble Captures a Star-Spangled Sea of 500,000 Stars

July 4, 2026 Celebrating the United States' 250th anniversary, NASA released a stunning Hubble portrait of Messier 3, an ancient globular cluster with more than 500,000 stars. The remarkable cluster is helping ...

Scientists May Have Finally Solved the Black Hole Information Paradox

July 4, 2026 Researchers have proposed that black holes stop evaporating at the last moment, leaving behind tiny remnants that preserve all the information they contain. The same seven-dimensional geometry behind ...

NASA Celebrates America's 250th Birthday With Incredible Views of Space

July 4, 2026 NASA is marking the United States' 250th birthday with four striking red, white, and blue images of deep space from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The collection features an exploded star, a stellar ...

New Optical Centrifuge Unlocks the Secrets of Frictionless Superfluids

July 4, 2026 Physicists have developed a new optical centrifuge that can precisely spin molecules inside a superfluid for the first time. The advance could help unravel some of the biggest mysteries of quantum ...

New Research Reveals the Hidden Pollution Left Behind by Fireworks

July 3, 2026 Scientists have uncovered new evidence that fireworks can pollute both the air and water in ways that extend beyond the visible smoke. The findings show that leftover debris, fine particles, and ...

Scientists Discover Why Some Brains Resist Alzheimer's

July 3, 2026 Some brains appear to fight back against Alzheimer's by helping immature brain cells survive damage instead of succumbing to it. Understanding this natural resilience could point researchers toward ...

July 3, 2026 A new study found that not all geoengineering ideas are created equal. Brightening marine clouds over the eastern Pacific could dramatically weaken ...

Scientists Make Quantum Time Flow Backward in Stunning Physics Breakthrough

July 3, 2026 Researchers have created quantum control techniques that can make a system appear to run backward in time. By precisely managing quantum measurements, they can reshape the system's arrow of time and ...

Scientists Say Creatine May Help Fight Depression

June 30, 2026 Creatine is best known as a muscle-building supplement, but scientists are now investigating whether it could also help treat depression by boosting the brain's energy supply. A new review ...

Scientists May Have Finally Found How Alzheimer's Spreads Through the Brain

June 30, 2026 A common brain protein may be giving Alzheimer’s disease an unexpected way to spread, carrying toxic Tau proteins from damaged neurons into healthy ones. By blocking these harmful protein packages ...

Scientists Discover a Completely Different Way to Fight Viruses

June 30, 2026 Researchers have uncovered an unexpected antiviral defense system in sea anemones that works very differently from the one humans use. The discovery suggests evolution developed multiple ways to ...

Great Ape Laughter Reveals a Hidden Origin of Human Speech

July 1, 2026 The rhythm of human laughter appears to have deep evolutionary roots shared with chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. That ancient pattern may offer one of the clearest clues yet to how ...

Scientists Reveal What Really Happens When Water Is Trapped in Tiny Spaces

July 1, 2026 A decades-old puzzle about water has finally been unraveled. Researchers found that water trapped in tiny nanoscale spaces is not inherently more reactive. Instead, the intense pressures created ...

These Tiny Soil Microbes Could Rescue Crops from Salty Farmland

June 28, 2026 Researchers have discovered that beneficial soil bacteria give plants an unexpected survival advantage in salty soils. Instead of helping plants keep salt out, the microbes stimulate the production ...

Astronomers Found Two Rare Super Puff Planets Lighter Than Cotton Candy

June 26, 2026 Two newly confirmed "super-puff" planets are so diffuse that they are less dense than cotton candy, despite being about the size of Jupiter. Their rare orbital relationship and enormous, ...

Scientists Discover Ancient Brain Cells That Help Block Distractions

June 24, 2026 Scientists have discovered a tiny group of neurons in an ancient brain region that acts like a built-in focus filter, helping the brain ignore distractions and zero in on what matters most. When ...

A Surprising Brain Discovery Is Forcing Scientists to Rethink Movement Disorders

July 1, 2026 A surprising discovery is overturning a long-held assumption about how the brain’s movement center works. Researchers found that two key cerebellar cell types—thought to be tightly linked—often ...

This Newly Discovered Ballista Spider Catapults Ants Into a Deadly Trap

June 26, 2026 Scientists have discovered a “ballista spider” that builds a spring-powered silk trap designed specifically to catch aggressive green tree ants. The ant unknowingly triggers the mechanism itself, ...

USC Scientists Just Unlocked an Endless Supply of Cancer-Fighting Immune Cells

June 29, 2026 A new stem-cell-inspired technique allows scientists to grow vast numbers of immune-cell progenitors that can be engineered to hunt cancer and strengthen immune responses. In animal studies, the ...

Scientists Finally Solved How H5N1 Bird Flu Hid in Dairy Cows

June 23, 2026 Researchers uncovered why H5N1 bird flu attacks cows’ udders instead of their lungs: the virus’s preferred receptors are concentrated in mammary tissue. The breakthrough could help scientists ...

The Secret Language Behind Animal Cooperation

June 20, 2026 Animals from different species often rely on surprisingly sophisticated communication to work together, whether finding food, cleaning parasites, or gaining protection. New research suggests these ...

NASA’s Lucy Finds a Wobbling Peanut-Shaped Asteroid With Signs of Ancient Water

June 25, 2026 NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered that asteroid Donaldjohanson is a wobbling, peanut-shaped relic born from a violent collision and slowly reshaped by the subtle force of sunlight. It also carries ...

James Webb Uncovers Exotic Salt Clouds on a Mysterious Pink World

June 28, 2026 Astronomers have finally cracked the mystery of the famous “Pink Planet,” a strange world 57 light-years away that has puzzled scientists for more than a decade. Using the James Webb Space ...

Millions Take Omega-3 Fish Oil for Brain Health but a New Study Found No Benefit

June 29, 2026 Fish oil supplements successfully delivered omega-3s to the brain, but a two-year study found no meaningful benefits for memory, cognition, or Alzheimer’s-related brain changes. The results ...

Physicists Create a Strange New Quantum State Called a Fractional Fermi Sea

June 29, 2026 Researchers have shown that ultracold atoms can be driven into a strange new quantum state called a fractional Fermi sea, where particles organize themselves in unexpected ways. The discovery points ...

Scientists Discover Neurons Must Break Their DNA to Build the Brain

June 21, 2026 As newborn neurons make their way through the developing brain, they must squeeze through incredibly tight spaces to reach their final destinations. Researchers discovered that this physical journey ...

The Milky Way’s Weird Gamma-Ray Glow May Be Dark Matter After All

June 30, 2026 A strange gamma-ray glow at the center of the Milky Way has long sparked debate over whether it comes from hidden neutron stars or elusive dark matter. By applying machine learning to more than a ...

Scientists Expected a Black Hole but Found a Neutrino Factory Powered by Stars

June 19, 2026 A distant galaxy nicknamed Shadow Blaster may have revealed a surprising source of cosmic neutrinos: extreme star formation instead of a supermassive black hole. The discovery suggests that hidden, ...